#Review - Fire Within by Eliza Nolan #YA #Fantasy #Paranormal

Series: The Phoenix # 3
Format: Kindle 252 pages
Release Date: December 27, 2019
Publisher: E. N. Publications
Source: Author
Genre: YA, Paranormal, Fantasy

Julia Long has finally come to terms with her Phoenix powers. Now, all she has to do is perform the final binding ritual and she’ll not only be safe, she’ll be immortal.

To make that happen, Julia and her friends travel to Charleston to find the Ankatala, an ancient book of magic the ritual requires. But the Priest at the Phoenix temple wants Julia's powers, and he's plucking them from her one by one, a process that will ultimately kill her.

Now Julia must learn the most valuable lesson of all: Sometimes the fire within us is all we have.

Fire Within, by author Eliza Nolan, is the third and final installment in the authors The Phoenix trilogy. Protagonist Julia Long has accepted her fate as the Phoenix and all that comes with it. Super powers and immortality. For months, Julia and her gang have been trying to locate the Ankatala (Book of the Phoenix) which is said to hold the answer to performing the final ritual. But, until she completes the final ritual, she is vulnerable to attack which means that her enemies will try anything to prevent her from ascending. 

In order for her enemies, most especially Aimes, Phoenix High Priest, to take her powers, they need to kill her. Still in Charleston, S.C., Julia is surrounded by her friends Samantha and Graham who she chose over her fated mate Keles or Nefidari as well as her mother. Julia also needs (5) powerful Beshi who are supposed to give their powers to Julia so she ascends as the Phoenix. Graham is one of those Beshi, and so is Jack, Julia's cousin and troublemaker who is able to invade and spy on Julia via Samantha. 

The answers may be held in a place called the Phoenix Temple but the Temple is warded against Julia so she needs to find other ways to get inside. Then, while shadow walking, she see's a girl in the temple who might be another ally, or an enemy. Thankfully, Parker, becomes an ally. She also has her own story to tell in that she's been searching for her sister Dee who went missing. Parker believes that Dee is here somewhere in the Temple. Parker is also handy at healing magic which comes in handy. 

There have been some positives over the past two books. Julia found family in Turkey (Rabia and the Beshi). Her family in Turkey was much, much more knowledgeable about the ritual of the Phoenix than Julia has been able to investigate herself. She reconnected with her mother who is a bit on the overprotective side trying to make up for lost time. Even though she is fated by magic to be mated to Keles, she decided to choose her own mate instead. This might come as surprise for you, but I actually agree with the decision. 

In all honesty, Julia is her own worst enemy. She has literally sabotaged herself at every step. Her self doubt about her abilities even creates her own shadow darkness that taunts her and goads her. She doubts her ability to become the Phoenix when everyone else knows that she's more than capable. When will Julia finally accept who she is? Or, will it be too late and Aimes and his goons find a way to take her powers and her destiny away? 

This book doesn't end with the final chapter. If you don't have the Epilogue, you are missing a reunion of sorts that you don't want to miss out on. I would suggest that if you do read this series, start from the beginning. There's a whole lot of stuff that you would miss by just starting with this book.

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Wednesday #Review - From the Ashes by Eliza Nolan #YALit #Fantasy

Series: The Phoenix # 2
Format: Kindle, 316 pages
Release Date: June 26, 2017
Publisher: E.N. Publishing
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

In this exciting sequel to Phoenix Awakens, Nolan whisks her readers off to Istanbul where the Legend of the Phoenix is the centerpiece in a centuries old battle for power.

It’s been three months since Julia Long discovered she’s a magical being called The Phoenix, and she still hasn’t mastered her ancestral powers. But when a mysterious visitor provides evidence that Julia’s birth mother has been kidnapped in Istanbul, Julia must try to save her.

Meeting her mother's family for the first time is wonderful, but discovering there are other kids her age with magic is better, even if one of them is infuriatingly dark and handsome.

But not everyone is happy letting kids be kids. Some seek to use these gifted youth as pawns in a game of power and intrigue. And just by the nature of who she is, Julia's now the most powerful piece on the board. But if she doesn’t play her part perfectly, she could lose everything, including her mother.

From the Ashes is the second installment in author Eliza Nolan's The Phoenix series. 18-year old protagonist Julia Long recently discovered that she is the fabled Phoenix. The Phoenix, in this world, is a sort of magical creature that lived a few hundred years ago. Unfortunately, Julia's knowledge of the full extent of her powers, and the book that explains what she needs to know, is currently locked up in a Charleston Police Station where it sits after the events of the previous installment.

Julia's issue, to begin with, is that her powers have gone silent since she healed five boys, including her current boyfriend Graham, who became her Beshi. Beshi, for the uninitiated, are those who gave themselves up in order for the Phoenix to rise. The second issue is the arrival of a strange woman with a packet of money, a passport, a one way ticket to Istanbul, as well as a letter supposedly written by her mother. Curious, especially since we previously learned that her mother apparently knew all along who Julia was and left a necklace to protect her from enemies that await her. 

Julia and Graham travel to Istanbul where an unexpected reunion with a family she knew nothing about happens. The struggle to find her mother, who she hasn't known her entire life, begins in earnest, but with plenty of twists and a bit of betrayal as well. To add insult to injury, the family is aghast at how little Julia understands about her role as the Phoenix. A role that can, as we find out, be taken away from her if she fails to understand what her destiny really is and does all she can to protect herself from enemies just waiting to surprise her.

Julia's hope is to return home to Charleston to retrieve the book that apparently holds all the answers, and unlock the key to her powers. Especially after discovering the so called Army of the Phoenix and the strange boy she finds a curious connection to Kele. Her connection to Kele will test her relationship with Graham to the limits on both ends of the spectrum. Will Julia survive her next test, or will the evil that is waiting for her finally bring down the Phoenix? Book # 3 has is being called The Fire Within. No further information is available at this time, but I will definitely be reading to see what happens next. 

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#Review - Phoenix Awakens by Eliza Nolan (Young Adult, Fantasy)

Series: The Phoenix # 1
Format: E-Galley, 298 pages
Release Date: October 12, 2015
Publisher: Createspace
Source: The Fantastic Flying Book Club
Genre: YA, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy

A paranormal debut about a high school senior who finds herself in a fight with a secret society for control of ancient magic. 

Julia never believed in magic.

Julia Long is starting her senior year with an extra dose of crazy. The dreams of cultish, bloody rituals are weird enough, but the victim in her lifelike dreams is her new classmate, Southern charmer Graham.

Graham admits he was a Phoenix — part of a centuries old secret society — but swears he left it all behind. As Julia works with Graham to figure out why she is dreaming about his past, she's discovering she has other abilities. She heals Graham’s migraines with a touch, and there’s her superhuman strength that comes and goes. Julia doesn’t know where her new talents come from, but there’s no denying that when Graham is near, her powers kick into overdrive.

But the Phoenix Society wants Graham back. They need his blood to awaken the magic they seek, and they'll do whatever it takes to get it. Can Julia uncover the truth behind her connection to Graham? How far will Julia go in order to save Graham and stop the Phoenixes from harnessing this powerful magic? 

"Your life is about to change in ways you can't imagine" 

Phoenix Awakens is the first installment in Eliza Nolan's The Phoenix series. 17-year old Julia Long has been having disturbing dreams and she doesn't have any clue of what they mean, nor why she appears at specific points in a certain event. The dreams always seem to be set against the backdrop of some sort of swamp with an initiation of sorts taking place.

But, it isn't until she meets the new guy to her school, Graham and his sister Clara, that she puts the name to the face that has been haunting her dreams. (She also see's other faces, including Clara, but let's move on.) Graham and Clara left South Carolina behind because Graham and four others got themselves involved in a society called Phoenix. Graham wanted nothing more to do with them or their goals. 

But, Graham claiming that he's put the group behind him, and is ready to move on doesn't make it so. If only it were that easy we wouldn't need an entire book. We wouldn't need Julia catching a train in an attempt to save Graham from the big baddies. We wouldn't need to know about her best friend Samantha acting out and leaving Julia behind.

Everything, and I mean everything is connected in this story. Graham and Julia and why she is dreaming about his past. Julia's pendant from her mother that she wears called the "Kamin." Her own mother's abandoning the family a year after she was born, and her father's secrecy in not telling Julia the truth about the past. To having her own spirit guide who is not all that impressed with Julia's lack of understanding of why things are happening to her.

Julia and Graham work together to figure out why she is dreaming about his past and why the Phoenix's won't leave Graham alone. While wearing the pendant, Julia has some surprising abilities from healing migraines with a touch, to protecting a friend from hobos who try to steal their baggage. Where does all this power come from? 

One of the things that readers should note when reading this book, is that each chapter starts out with Julia having one of her dreams. It leads to hints as to who Julia is actually seeing. The dreams are a bit on the dark side, but not enough to warn anyone away from reading the book. Julia's dreams end when certain things happen to different people in the dreams.

I will say that Phoenix Awakens is a pretty predicable story but without the love triangle that irritates and causes my hair to turn even greyer than it already is. I could have avoided the whole Samantha issue. I think it took on a mind of its own, and threw Julia off her own impending perils. I totally understand that this is intended for a younger audience than. I understand that there will be High School shenanigans, and angst, and silliness that can't fully be avoided. Let's hope book # 2 buries these parts in the sand.

**I received this book for free from (Publisher) in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.**

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Author Bio

Eliza Nolan was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She lived in Charleston, South Carolina, for a few years, after which she returned to icy Minnesota - where she now lives with her two unruly cats in a house smaller than your closet.

She is an avid reader and writer of YA. She has ghostwritten a novel or two, but also writes her own stuff, and is finally publishing her debut young adult urban fantasy novel, Phoenix Awakens.

AUTHOR LINKS:

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